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MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Illini hope to avoid letdown

marvin holman marvin., commercial-news, danville, ill.
·4 min read
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Dec. 10—CHAMPAIGN — The University of Illinois men's basketball team are coming off a major win over Texas on Tuesday.

Now the Illini will have its first Big Ten home game of the season as they will take on Penn State today in front of a sold out State Farm Center at 11 a.m.

"I feel very good about the Jimmy V (Classic) and the game against Texas," Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. "I don't think it was a pretty game and no one played their A game, but I do think both teams played hard. I liked the toughness and the grit and we got out of Terrance (Shannon Jr.) when we did. I was very encouraged with his play."

But the Illini (7-3, 0-1) may not have it easy against the Nittany Lions (6-3, 0-1), who have lost their two games but can score a lot of points quickly.

With Penn State you have one of the oldest teams in the conference and (Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry) does a great job," Underwood said. "They are elite from 3 and they have had 19 3's in one game this year. They are different in that their point guard (Jalen) Pickett is really a five, so they use him on the post a lot and they were effective against us last year and thy have done a good job of that this year.

"Seth Lundy is doing great in shooting and they brought in some guys from the portal and they have done well in shooting. They ware one of the best teams as far as offensive execution, so we have to be on point and be very good in our defensive communication."

Against Texas, the Illini found heroes to take down the No. 2 team in the nation. Jayden Epps and Skyy Clark played well and also Matthew Mayer overcame allergies and had 21 points against the Longhorns.

"Skyy was in the game a lot, but you go with the hot hand and that is not about Skyy because Jayden did some good things," Underwood said. "It doesn't matter about who starts, it is about who plays well and I had Terrance sit and I stayed with them until under four minutes left. I was trying to win a game.

"(Mayer) now has a great peace of mind mentally. I known people who have allergies and it is not a good feeling. He's had days in practice where he has made 9-10 shots in a row and we thought eventually this will come out. It just need to translate and he has the ability to get one. We got him in some isolations and he is hard to handle."

All of this gives Underwood a good amount of choices in whatever situation the Illini finds themselves in.

"We have a good amount of variety. We like our scenarios with everyone in the game," Underwood said. "It may not be the same guys but we know the scenarios we are good with. It could Terrance in certain situations or it could be Skyy and RJ (Melendez). It is just the feel of the game."

With the Lions today, Underwood said the defense will be the key against a team that shoots like Penn State.

"The team we play tomorrow is not going to make mistakes," Underwood said. "They try to take you off transition and make things hard and you have to run good offense every day and you have to do that every night in this league because the coaching is acceptable and most teams are schooled in defense.

"You have to talk and communicate. We can't cover everything they do. Micah has an NBA background and they run a lot of action, blurs and step-ups and they want to create a lot of mass confusion and they have an advantage with Pickett in the post. They play bully ball and you can't give them anything. We have to have great communication."

With four double-digit scores in Pickett, Lundy, Andrew Funk and Camren Wynter, Underwood said that any Nittany Lion can have the hot hand.

"I don't think we have seen guys who can shoot it like they do and they are not a bad shooter in the bunch," Underwood said. "They are all in the mid 40's in shooting 3's. We see teams in space but not anyone with all five players hitting 3's. He's (Pickett) a great rebounder and a great passer and he gets a lot of them shots. he is like Ayo (Dosunmu) in making shots for his teammates They run to the 3-point line and he does a great job in push in it up the floor."

The game will be show in the Big Ten Network and will be broadcast on the Busey Bank Illini Sports Network including WDAN-AM 1490 and WDNL-FM 102.1.